Beware the Friendly Stranger
by PianoxLullaby
Summary: In an economically struggling, drug-ridden nowhere town, children are going missing left and right and coyotes are wandering the streets in daylight. Kael didn't pay much attention to the disappearings until his little brother, Keaton, wound up on the list. When everyone in school is corrupted, this little place was enough to cause mass insanity and teen suicide.


**One: Who Cares? **

Everything was blaringly silent, a blurry barrier about his head making blobs of the faces and muffling the noises around him. He found himself distracted more than usual lately, stress levels high and the Marlboro Menthols in his pocket more demanding than ever. His peers knew something was wrong but they went on as if they were none-the-wiser. It was easier for them that way-otherwise it was too much.

Kael was known among his classmates as the one who was going to drop out before Senior Year, but he knew a lot more than they realized. He was a silent observer that just had too little motivation. When the teachers handed out packet after packet for the students to read over and finish for homework, he rolled his eyes, critiquing every little bullshit thing that showed how little these bitches and bastards cared about teaching. Kael was smart, but he just didn't care to memorize and take orders.

The clock ticked loudly in his ears like it were pounding loudly even over the chatter of the other teenagers. This was his form of meditation; singling out quiet sounds in crowded rooms that he had no desire to be in. _Why am I even still here? _

He stood up and made his way nonchalantly out of the classroom with no one bothering to look up or stop him. This is how it was every single day: Go to school just long enough to trick the parents and then ditch class to smoke and fuck around. There were a couple girls that started the same routine with him, attracted to his bleached white hair and the dark circles under his eyes. And then there was the handful of underclassmen who made him their idol-got into cigarettes and started wearing leather jackets. But there was only one other person in this hellhole that didn't live this similar lifestyle just to place Kael on a pedestal.

J.J. He would've been a Senior this year had he not dropped out two years ago. He lived under the bridge down the road from the town library most nights, but sometimes you could find him sleeping inside the graffiti-painted castle that sat at the bottom of the hill in Fall Park. J.J. always talked about when he was gonna get out of this nowhere town, but Kael knew better. J.J. was comfortable being the black fish in the small, swampy pond.

Kael made his way outside of school, pulling the smokes out of his pocket to inhale the poison deep. A girl and two other boys followed close behind, waiting for their prophet to take them to the Promised Land. He acted as though he didn't notice them at all, but really he just wished they would leave him the fuck alone. He didn't sign up for this small-town celebrity bullshit.

Walking towards the outskirts of the woods, Kael was suddenly surrounded by faces staring at him. Missing person posters, some ripped apart, hanging for dear life onto the brick walls where they were plastered, or crumpled up beneath his feet, smeared with dirt and prints and used for mulch.

"How long has this been going on for?" Dolly, the fire-truck red-head who suffered from anorexia and insomnia, said to no-one in particular, grabbing up one of the flyers from the ground and swinging her waist-length hair over her shoulder.

Dannie, with raven-black hair and eyes blue as ice, kicked some of the flyers, tearing them to pieces rather than sending them forward. "Too fuckin' long. I'm so sick of hearing about all these damn kids. It's all you hear when you turn on the television, the radio, grab the newspaper, go to school-it's all about this bullshit! Who cares? Keep your kids inside, problem solved!"

Dolly looked at him playfully, but really she was filled with disgust.

Kael chuckled to himself, flicking his cigarette butt to the muddy ground, leaning against one of the flyers. "You sound like you have it all figured out, Dannie."

"Fuck yeah, I do!" Dannie replied back with enthusiasm.

Justin, a short, baby-faced freshmen smiled and laughed along, leaning in his black hoodie sweatswirt against the wall nearest Kael. He was new to this little group following, and always just smiled with the others. He thought they were the coolest thing to ever happen to him. Everything he did was to make them think he was worth their time, even when they weren't around.

Children younger than fourteen kept going missing around this place. The elementary school was being guarded by volunteers and members of the PTA, search parties were always crying out the names of the missing kids through the night after dark. There was talk of a memorial being put up in the schoolyard to honor the lost babies of heartbroken parents. Local and nationwide news stations were always driving through town, asking the same questions over and over again, re-opening wounds and criminalizing innocent citizens left and right. Every week you'd see a couple new faces; one a victim, the other a suspect. Reputations were being ruined and everyone was like a ticking bomb waiting to snap.

Dolly started picking at her fingernails until they bled, the subject of disappearing children making her heart pound. She was sickly with big doe eyes and natty hair. She was loose and always willing to do drugs for attention. Of all the girls that hung all over him, Dolly was Kael's favorite. Despite all her darkness and her skeletal body, he saw a light in her that couldn't be tainted. Maybe it was because he knew she was a smart girl underneath all of her facades. She played the stupid slut so boys would like her, but she was like Kael; she knew a lot more than people gave her credit for. Dannie and Justin only saw her shell, but Kael saw her soul.

"Who do you think would do something so twisted?" Dolly said softly, looking up at the boys from beneath her red mane, maybe even a little scared of what they would say-always self-conscious.

"Probably anyone in this shithole," Kael said, looking at her from the corner of his eyes with head pointed towards the cloudy sky. It looked like it might rain, but then again, it looked like that all the time.

She looked up at him, eyes asking for him to specify, knowing full well he probably wasn't going to.

Dannie lit up his own cancer stick. "My bet's on Mad Malik."

"Why, because he's Arabic? You racist fuck," Kael replied, grimacing at the ignorant little bastard. Dannie was the biggest douche-bag out of all the worms that followed him around.

"No, Kael, damn-chill out! Because he's crazy as hell! They call him Mad Malik for a reason, you know," he took a long puff of his cigarette, "It's said that he murdered his whole family and got away with it. Besides, you can always hear him mumbling to himself in the hallway with his eyes all spaced out and shit. Mom's still pissed that the district would even hire a psycho like him for a janitor. Think she's tryin' to get him fired or something."

Dolly spoke up with a timid voice. "The jury found him innocent-"

"Yeah? And the jury found O.J. innocent, too! And how many innocent people get put on death row? Jesus, Dolly, use your brain for once. Ain't nothin' right about the justice system and you all know it."

Kael shook his head, eyes rolling as he walked away from the group. Dannie was as full of bullshit as ever, and this is pretty much what happened whenever the shithead was a part of the group. He could only handle so much. And Justin was gonna wind up being just like him, Kael was calling it right now.

Despite everything Kael felt about Dannie, though, he did agree with him. Who cares? He knew that more than half those kids were dead by now, and had the parents actually done their job their kids would still be at home asleep in their beds. The kidnapper left no fingerprints, no blood-nothing. They wouldn't catch him; he was just gonna be another cold case that chilled your spine years into the future. The best thing the poor people of this town could do was get over it and move on with their lives.

It was about time for recess at the elementary. Kael made his way over to the playground by the soccer field where he met with his little brother, Keaton, everyday. If there was one thing Kael was actually really good at, it was being a big brother, which was surprising to most.

The bell rang and the little people started running out to the grounds. The playground was seemingly empty-what with all the missing kids. They had maybe half the students left, half of those that were absent were missing and the other half were being home-schooled for fear of the unknown kidnapper stealing their children from the park.

Kael surveyed the small crowd of children, looking for an auburn-headed little boy with a face exactly like his. Keaton was usually one of the first kids out the door. He must've been distracted by something in class. Eventually, the number of kids running out the door was less and less until no more of them came out at all. Where was he?

The older brother walked towards one of the members of the PTA that were guarding the fence. He knew this woman by her face but didn't have a name to go with it. Of course he had seen her around before; this town was too small to not recognize every face. "Hey, have you seen Keaton Connelly?"

She turned her head to him and then down at her clipboard, skimming over the sheet and looking up names. Absent. She shook her head. "No. He didn't show up for school today."

"What? I got him on the bus, what do you mean he didn't show up for school?"

* * *

**A/N: **_Alrighty, first chapter is up. I'm so excited about writing this story. Originally, it was a Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover fic, but I've decided to use my own characters for this one. I can't wait to start writing the rest of this and creating something interesting and creepy for the Slenderman fandom. Feel free to critique and review! Thank you so much for taking the time to read! _

_~Lully_


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